A FRESH START--CROSSING THE SAMANKA MOUNTAINS--DESCENT ON A KORAK
ENCAMPMENT--NOMADS AND THEIR TENTS--DOOR-HOLES AND DOGS--POLOGS--KORAK
BREAD
About the 20th of October a Russian physician arrived from Tigil,
and proceeded to reduce the little strength that the Major had by
steaming, bleeding, and blistering him into a mere shadow of his
former robust self. The fever, however, abated under this energetic
treatment, and he began gradually to amend. Sometime during the same
week, Dodd and Meranef returned from Tigil with a new supply of tea,
sugar, rum, tobacco, and hardbread, and we began collecting dogs from
the neighbouring settlements of Kinkil and Polan for another trip
across the Samanka Mountains. Snow had fallen everywhere to a depth of
two feet, the weather had turned clear and cold, and there was nothing
except the Major's illness to detain us longer at Lesnoi. On the 28th
he declared himself able to travel, and we packed up for a start. On
November 1st we put on our heavy fur clothes, which turned us into
wild animals of most ferocious appearance, bade good-by to all the
hospitable people of Lesnoi, and set out with a train of sixteen
sledges, eighteen men, two hundred dogs, and forty days' provisions,
for the territory of the Wandering Koraks. We determined to reach
Gizhiga this time, or, as the newspapers say, perish in the attempt.
Late in the afternoon of November 3d, just as the long northern
twilight was fading into the peculiar steely blue of an arctic night,
our dogs toiled slowly up the last summit of the Samanka Mountains,
and we looked down from a height of more than two thousand feet upon
the dreary expanse of snow which stretched away to the far horizon. It
was the land of the Wandering Koraks. A cold breeze from the sea swept
across the mountain-top, soughing mournfully through the pines as
it passed, and intensifying the loneliness and silence of the white
wintry landscape. The faint pale light of the vanishing sun still
lingered upon the higher peaks; but the gloomy ravines below us,
shaggy with forests of larch and dense thickets of trailing-pine, were
already gathering the shadows and indistinctness of night. At the foot
of the mountains stood the first encampment of Koraks. As we rested
our dogs a few moments upon the summit, before commencing our descent,
we tried to discern through the gathering gloom the black tents which
we imagined stood somewhere beneath our feet; but nothing save the
dark patches of trailing-pine broke the dead white of the level
steppe. The encampment was hidden by a projecting shoulder of the
mountain.
[Illustration: WANDERING KORAKS WITH THEIR REINDEER AND SLEDGES
From a painting by George A. Frost]
The rising moon was just throwing into dark, bold relief the shaggy
outlines of the peaks on our right, as we roused up our dogs and
plunged into the throat of a dark ravine which led downward to the
steppe. The deceptive shadows of night, and the masses of rock which
choked up the narrow defile made the descent extremely dangerous; and
it required all the skill of our practised drivers to avoid accident.
Clouds of snow flew from the spiked poles with which they vainly tried
to arrest our downward rush; cries and warning shouts from those in
advance, multiplied by the mountain echoes, excited our dogs to still
greater speed, until we seemed, as the rocks and trees flew past, to
be in the jaws of a falling avalanche, which was carrying us with
breathless rapidity down the dark canon to certain ruin. Gradually,
however, our speed slackened, and we came out into the moonlight on
the hard, wind-packed snow of the open steppe. Half an hour's brisk
travel brought us into the supposed vicinity of the Korak encampment,
but we saw as yet no signs of either reindeer or tents. The disturbed,
torn-up condition of the snow usually apprises the traveller of his
approach to the _yurts_ of the Koraks, as the reindeer belonging to
the band range all over the country within a radius of several miles,
and paw up the snow in search of the moss which constitutes their
food. Failing to find any such indications, we were discussing the
probability of our having been misdirected, when suddenly our leading
dogs pricked up their sharp ears, snuffed eagerly at the wind, and
with short, excited yelps made off at a dashing gallop toward a low
hill which lay almost at right angles with our previous course. The
drivers endeavoured in vain to check the speed of the excited dogs;
their wolfish instincts were aroused, and all discipline was forgotten
as the fresh scent came down upon the wind from the herd of reindeer
beyond. A moment brought us to the brow of the hill, and before us in
the clear moonlight, stood the conical tents of the Koraks, surrounded
by at least four thousand reindeer, whose branching antlers looked
like a perfect forest of dry limbs. The dogs all gave voice
simultaneously, like a pack of foxhounds in view of the game, and
dashed tumultuously down the hill, regardless of the shouts of their
masters, and the menacing cries of three or four dark forms which rose
suddenly up from the snow between them and the frightened deer. Above
the tumult I could hear Dodd's voice, hurling imprecations in Russian
at his yelping dogs, which, in spite of his most strenuous efforts,
were dragging him and his capsized sledge across the steppe. The vast
body of deer wavered a moment and then broke into a wild stampede,
with drivers, Korak sentinels, and two hundred dogs in full pursuit.
Not desirous of becoming involved in the mêlée, I sprang from my
sledge and watched the confused crowd as it swept with shout, bark,
and halloo, across the plain. The whole encampment, which had seemed
in its quiet loneliness to be deserted, was now startled into instant
activity. Dark forms issued suddenly from the tents, and grasping the
long spears which stood upright in the snow by the doorway, joined in
the chase, shouting and hurling lassos of walrus hide at the dogs,
with the hope of stopping their pursuit. The clattering of thousands
of antlers dashed together in the confusion of flight, the hurried
beat of countless hoofs upon the hard snow, the deep, hoarse barks of
the startled deer, and the unintelligible cries of the Koraks, as they
tried to rally their panic-stricken herd, created a Pandemonium of
discordant sounds which could be heard far and wide through the
still, frosty atmosphere of night. It resembled a midnight attack of
Comanches upon a hostile camp, rather than the peaceful arrival of
three or four American travellers; and I listened with astonishment to
the wild uproar of alarm which we had unintentionally aroused.
The tumult grew fainter and fainter as it swept away into the
distance, and the dogs, exhausting the unnatural strength which the
excitement had temporarily given them, yielded reluctantly to the
control of their drivers and turned toward the tents. Dodd's dogs,
panting with the violence of their exertions, limped sullenly back,
casting longing glances occasionally in the direction of the deer, as
if they more than half repented the weakness which had led them to
abandon the chase.
"Why didn't you stop them?" I inquired of Dodd, laughingly. "A driver
of your experience ought to have better control of his team than
that."
"Stop them!" he exclaimed with an aggrieved air. "I'd like to see
_you_ stop them, with a rawhide lasso round your neck, and a big Korak
hauling like a steam windlass on the other end of it! It's all very
well to cry 'stop 'em'; but when the barbarians haul you off the rear
end of your sledge as if you were a wild animal, what course would
your sublime wisdom suggest? I believe I've got the mark of a lasso
round my neck now," and he felt cautiously about his ears for the
impression of a sealskin thong.
As soon as the deer had been gathered together again and a guard
placed over them, the Koraks crowded curiously around the visitors who
had entered so unceremoniously their quiet camp, and inquired through
Meranef, our interpreter, who we were and what we wanted. A wild,
picturesque group they made, as the moonlight streamed white and clear
into their swarthy faces, and glittered upon the metallic ornaments
about their persons and the polished blades of their long spears.
Their high cheek-bones, bold, alert eyes, and straight, coal-black
hair, suggested an intimate relationship with our own Indians; but the
resemblance went no further. Most of their faces wore an expression
of bold, frank honesty, which is not a characteristic of our western
aborigines, and which we instinctively accepted as a sufficient
guarantee of their friendliness and good faith. Contrary to our
preconceived idea of northern savages, they were athletic, able-bodied
men, fully up to the average height of Americans. Heavy _kukh-lánkas_
(kookh-lan'-kas), or hunting-shirts of spotted deerskin, confined
about the waist with a belt, and fringed round the bottom with the
long black hair of the wolverine, covered their bodies from the neck
to the knee, ornamented here and there with strings of small coloured
beads, tassels of scarlet leather, and bits of polished metal. Fur
trousers, long boots of sealskin coming up to the thigh, and wolfskin
hoods, with the ears of the animal standing erect on each side of
the head, completed the costume which, notwithstanding its _bizarre_
effect, had yet a certain picturesque adaptation to the equally
strange features of the moonlight scene. Leaving our Cossack Meranef,
seconded by the Major, to explain our business and wants, Dodd and
I strolled away to make a critical inspection of the encampment. It
consisted of four large conical tents, built apparently of a framework
of poles and covered with loose reindeerskins, confined in their
places by long thongs of seal or walrus hide, which were stretched
tightly over them from the apex of the cone to the ground. They seemed
at first sight to be illy calculated to withstand the storms which
in winter sweep down across this steppe from the Arctic Ocean; but
subsequent experience proved that the severest gales cannot tear them
from their fastenings. Neatly constructed sledges of various shapes
and sizes were scattered here and there upon the snow, and two or
three hundred pack-saddles for the reindeer were piled up in a
symmetrical wall near the largest tent. Finishing our examination, and
feeling somewhat bored by the society of fifteen or twenty Koraks who
had constituted themselves a sort of supervisory committee to watch
our motions, we returned to the spot where the representatives of
civilisation and barbarism were conducting their negotiations. They
had apparently come to an amicable understanding; for, upon our
approach, a tall native with shaven head stepped out from the throng,
and leading the way to the largest tent, lifted a curtain of skin and
revealed a dark hole about two feet and a half in diameter, which he
motioned to us to enter.
Now, if there was any branch of Viushin's Siberian education upon
which he especially prided himself, it was his proficiency in crawling
into small holes. Persevering practice had given him a flexibility of
back and a peculiar sinuosity of movement which we might admire but
could not imitate; and although the distinction was not perhaps an
altogether desirable one, he was invariably selected to explore all
the dark holes and underground passages (miscalled doors) which came
in our way. This seemed to be one of the most peculiar of the many
different styles of entrance which we had observed; but Viushin,
assuming as an axiom that no part of his body could be greater than
the (w)hole, dropped into a horizontal position, and requesting Dodd
to give his feet an initial shove, crawled cautiously in. A few
seconds of breathless silence succeeded his disappearance, when,
supposing that all must be right, I put my head into the hole and
crawled warily after him. The darkness was profound; but, guided by
Viushin's breathing, I was making very fair progress, when suddenly
a savage snarl and a startling yell came out of the gloom in front,
followed instantly by the most substantial part of Viushin's body,
which struck me with the force of a battering-ram on the top of the
head, and caused me, with the liveliest apprehensions of ambuscade
and massacre, to back precipitately out. Viushin, with the awkward
retrograde movements of a disabled crab, speedily followed.
"What in the name of Chort [Footnote: The Devil.] is the matter?"
demanded Dodd in Russian, as he extricated Viushin's head from the
folds of the skin curtain in which it had become enveloped. "You back
out as if Shaitan and all his imps were after you!"--"You don't
suppose," responded Viushin, with excited gestures, "that I'm going to
stay in that hole and be eaten up by Korak dogs? If I was foolish enough
to go in, I've got discretion enough to know when to come out. I don't
believe the hole leads anywhere, anyhow," he added apologetically; "and
it's all full of dogs." With a quick perception of Viushin's difficulties
and a grin of amusement at his discomfiture, our Korak guide entered the
hole, drove out the dogs, and lifting up an inner curtain, allowed the
red light of the fire to stream through. Crawling on hands and knees a
distance of twelve or fifteen feet through the low doorway, we entered
the large open circle in the interior of the tent. A crackling fire of
resinous pine boughs burned brightly upon the ground in the centre,
illuminating redly the framework of black, glossy poles, and
flickering fitfully over the dingy skins of the roof and the swarthy
tattooed faces of the women who squatted around. A large copper
kettle, filled with some mixture of questionable odour and appearance,
hung over the blaze, and furnished occupation to a couple of skinny,
bare-armed women, who with the same sticks were alternately stirring
its contents, poking up the fire, and knocking over the head two or
three ill-conditioned but inquisitive dogs. The smoke, which rose
lazily from the fire, hung in a blue, clearly defined cloud about five
feet from the ground, dividing the atmosphere of the tent into a lower
stratum of comparatively clear air, and an upper cloud region where
smoke, vapours, and ill odours contended for supremacy.
The location of the little pure air which the _yurt_ afforded made
the boyish feat of standing upon one's head a very desirable
accomplishment; and as the pungent smoke filled my eyes to the
exclusion of everything else except tears, I suggested to Dodd that he
reverse the respective positions of his head and feet, and try it--he
would escape the smoke and sparks from the fire, and at the same time
obtain a new and curious optical effect. With the sneer of contempt
which always met even my most valuable suggestions, he replied that I
might try my own experiments, and throwing himself down at full length
on the ground, he engaged in the interesting diversion of making faces
at a Korak baby. Viushin's time, as soon as his eyes recovered a
little from the effects of the smoke, was about equally divided
between preparations for our evening meal, and revengeful blows at the
stray dogs which ventured in his vicinity; while the Major, who was
probably the most usefully employed member of the party, negotiated
for the exclusive possession of a _polog_. The temperature of a Korak
tent in winter seldom ranges above 20° or 25° Fahr., and as constant
exposure to such a degree of cold would be at least very disagreeable,
the Koraks construct around the inner circumference of the tent small,
nearly air-tight apartments called _pologs_, which are separated
one from another by skin curtains, and combine the advantages of
exclusiveness with the desirable luxury of greater warmth. These
_pologs_ are about four feet in height, and six or eight feet in width
and length. They are made of the heaviest furs sewn carefully together
to exclude the air, and are warmed and lighted by a burning
fragment of moss floating in a wooden bowl of seal oil. The law of
compensation, however, which pervades all Nature, makes itself felt
even in the _pologs_ of a Korak _yurt_, and for the greater degree of
warmth is exacted the penalty of a closer, smokier atmosphere. The
flaming wick of the lamp, which floats like a tiny burning ship in a
miniature lake of rancid grease, absorbs the vital air of the _polog_,
and returns it in the shape of carbonic acid gas, oily smoke, and
sickening odours. In defiance, however, of all the known laws of
hygiene, this vitiated atmosphere seems to be healthful; or, to
state the case negatively, there is no evidence to prove its
unhealthfulness. The Korak women, who spend almost the whole of their
time in these _pologs_, live generally to an advanced age, and except
a noticeable tendency to angular outlines, and skinniness, there is
nothing to distinguish them physically from the old women of other
countries. It was not without what I supposed to be a well-founded
apprehension of suffocation, that I slept for the first time in a
Korak _yurt_; but my uneasiness proved to be entirely groundless, and
gradually wore away.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE WANDERING KORAKS]
With a view to escape from the crowd of Koraks, who squatted around
us on the earthen floor, and whose watchful curiosity soon became
irksome, Dodd and I lifted up the fur curtain of the _polog_ which the
Major's diplomacy had secured, and crawled in to await the advent of
supper. The inquisitive Koraks, unable to find room in the narrow
_polog_ for the whole of their bodies, lay down to the number of nine
on the outside, and poking their ugly, half-shaven heads under the
curtain, resumed their silent supervision. The appearance in a row of
nine disembodied heads, whose staring eyes rolled with synchronous
motion from side to side as we moved, was so ludicrous that we
involuntarily burst into laughter. A responsive smile instantly
appeared upon each of the nine swarthy faces, whose simultaneous
concurrence in the expression of every emotion suggested the idea of
some huge monster with nine heads and but one consciousness. Acting
upon Dodd's suggestion that we try and smoke them out, I took my
brier-wood pipe from my pocket and proceeded to light it with one of
those peculiar snapping lucifers which were among our most cherished
relics of civilisation. As the match, with a miniature fusillade of
sharp reports, burst suddenly into flame, the nine startled heads
instantly disappeared, and from beyond the curtain we could hear a
chorus of long-drawn "tye-e-e's" from the astonished natives, followed
by a perfect Babel of animated comments upon this diabolical method
of producing fire. Fearful, however, of losing some other equally
striking manifestation of the white men's supernatural power, the
heads soon returned, reenforced by several others which the report of
the wonderful occurrence had attracted. The fabled watchfulness of the
hundred-eyed Argus was nothing compared with the scrutiny to which we
were now subjected. Every wreath of curling smoke which rose from our
lips was watched by the staring eyes as intently as if it were some
deadly vapour from the bottomless pit, which would shortly burst into
report and flame. A loud and vigorous sneeze from Dodd was the signal
for a second panic-stricken withdrawal of the row of heads, and
another comparison of respective experiences outside the curtain. It
was laughable enough; but, tired of being stared at and anxious for
something to eat, we crawled out of our _polog_ and watched with
unassumed interest the preparation of supper.
Out of a little pine box which contained our telegraphic instruments,
Viushin had improvised a rude, legless mess-table, which he was
engaged in covering with cakes of hardbread, slices of raw bacon, and
tumblers of steaming tea. These were the luxuries of civilisation, and
beside them on the ground, in a long wooden trough and a huge bowl of
the same material, were the corresponding delicacies of barbarism. As
to their nature and composition we could, of course, give only a
wild conjecture; but the appetites of weary travellers are not very
discriminating, and we seated ourselves, like cross-legged Turks, on
the ground, between the trough and the instrument-box, determined to
prove our appreciation of Korak hospitality by eating everything which
offered itself. The bowl with its strange-looking contents arrested,
of course, the attention of the observant Dodd, and, poking it
inquiringly with a long-handled spoon, he turned to Viushin, who, as
_chef-de-cuisine_, was supposed to know all about it, and demanded:
"What's this you've got?"
"That?" answered Viushin, promptly, "that's _kasha_" (hasty pudding
made of rice).
"_Kasha_!" exclaimed Dodd, contemptuously. "It looks more like the
stuff that the children of Israel made bricks of. They don't seem to
have wanted for straw, either," he added, as he fished up several
stems of dried grass. "What is it, anyhow?"
"That," said Viushin again, with a comical assumption of learning, "is
the celebrated 'Jamuk chi a la Poosteretsk,' the national dish of the
Koraks, made from the original recipe of His High Excellency
Oollcot Ootkoo Minyegeetkin, Grand Hereditary Taiyon and Vwisokee
Prevoskhodeetelstvo--"
"Hold on!" exclaimed Dodd, with a deprecating gesture, "that's enough,
I'll eat it"; and taking out a halfspoonful of the dark viscid mass,
he put it to his lips.
"Well," said we expectantly, after a moment's pause, "what does it
taste like?"
"Like the mud pies of infancy!" he replied sententiously. "A little
salt, pepper, and butter, and a good deal of meat and flour, with a
few well selected vegetables, would probably improve it; but it isn't
particularly bad as it is."
Upon the strength of this rather equivocal recommendation I tasted it.
Aside from a peculiar earthy flavour, it had nothing about it which
was either pleasant or disagreeable. Its qualities were all negative
except its grassiness, which alone gave character and consistency to
the mass.
The mixture, known among the Koraks as _manyalla,_ is eaten by all
the Siberian tribes as a substitute for bread, and is the nearest
approximation which native ingenuity can make to the staff of life. It
is valued, we were told, more for its medicinal virtues than for
any intrinsic excellence of taste, and our limited experience fully
prepared us to believe the statement. Its original elements are
clotted blood, tallow, and half-digested moss, taken from the stomach
of the reindeer, where it is supposed to have undergone some essential
change which fits it for second-hand consumption. These curious and
heterogeneous ingredients are boiled up together with a few handfuls
of dried grass to give the mixture consistency, and the dark mass is
then moulded into small loaves and frozen for future use. Our host was
evidently desirous of treating us with every civility, and, as a mark
of especial consideration, bit off several choice morsels from the
large cube of venison in his grimy hand, and taking them from his
mouth, offered them to me. I waived graciously the implied compliment,
and indicated Dodd as the proper recipient of such attentions; but the
latter revenged himself by requesting an old woman to bring me some
raw tallow, which he soberly assured her constituted my only food
when at home. My indignant denials, in English were not, of course,
understood; and the woman, delighted to find an American whose tastes
corresponded so closely with her own, brought the tallow. I was a
helpless victim, and I could only add this last offence to the long
list of grievances which stood to Dodd's credit, and which I hoped
some time to settle in full.
Supper, in the social economy of the Koraks, is emphatically the meal
of the day. Around the kettle of _manyalla_, or the trough of reindeer
meat; gather the men of the band, who during the hours of daylight
have been absent, and who, between mouthfuls of meat or moss, discuss
the simple subjects of thought which their isolated life affords. We
availed ourselves of this opportunity to learn something of the tribes
that inhabited the country to the northward, the reception with which
we should probably meet, and the mode of travel which we should be
compelled to adopt.
[Illustration: Small Adze with bone headpiece]